New Generation Parking fine

A friend of mine lives in one of these fancy gated new apartment builds, one where you have to get buzzed in through a main gate and is like a small village inside. Anyway, I went to see his new flat the other day and then for a night out but there were no visitor spaces available and so I parked my car in front of a generator building on a raised bit of pavement, that wasn’t used as pedestrian access I hasten to add.

The next day I've got a ticket from 'New Generation Parking Management Ltd' who I presume are employed to carry out security on the site. Anyway, the ticket is £65 if paid within 7 days but if not then it jumps to £75. If its not paid within 14 days it jumps to £115. If its not paid within 28 days it jumps to £150(!) and they will then request my details from the dvla and pass to debt recovery agency where I will incur further costs.

Can this company actually do what they are threatening and should I ignore them or should I just suck it up and pay the 65 quid? I don’t really fancy my credit rating being affected by an outstanding fine.

The ticket states there were contractual warning signs erected on the land so I'm guessing there was warning. To be honest I didnt have much choice where to park, it was either in a residents space or st the side of the road as there were no free visitors spaces.

Cant help but think that they only provide about 4 visitor spaces for hundreds of residents in the hope that they'll rack up lots of money in fines.

Correct. Find out what it costs to park at the local council run car park and send them that amount of money for the time you parked there (should be about a fiver), stating that this is fair payment for you parking on their land.

My guess is that you were on private land run buy a management company, and these guys act as their parking enforcers - Entirely legal, if not ethical.

Thats the part I was concerned about. If what they're doing is legal (if unethical and a total money making exercise) then I guess I'll suck up the fine, but if they're just a bunch of cowboys acting illegally I'm tempted to ignore them. The part about obtaining my details from the dvla worried me somewhat.

There was a program on TV not long ago, people who own private land and clamp cars. Maybe take some pictures of the place explaining there are insufficient visitor spaces, and the place you parked did not obstruct anything? I would pay it, but then try to claim it back somehow (if you go through TV programmes or so, they usually refund you since they dont want bad press). Might be a long shot, but worth a try?

If they get your details from the DVLA that won't help them as their claim is against the driver of the car not the owner. They would need to prove it was you who parked the car. While it is probably legal, the whole privately monitored and enforced system seems to work only just inside the law.

If you ignore it expect letters through the post with increasing fines, followed by a couple of letters from bailiffs(who are probably part of the same parking company) they will threaten court action etc. If you keep ignoring them they will stop, as they seem to work on the principle that a high percentage of people will pay up with out question.

The idea of civil small claims court is to claim back one's consequential loss, on this instance they fine company claiming their £150.

The grey area comes in when they cannot prove a loss, and whilst there is a contract in place (which started when you parked there) they have not actually had a loss of £150. Indeed it is clear that the sum is disproportional to the parking violation, it is also very clearly immoral. Whilst they will get something, it will not be the £150.

It is very difficult for a private company to to fine and individual (see bank charges). Business to business is a little different when it comes to late invoices etc.

Well, apparently I'm allowed to appeal but I also have to include payment which they'll first process and then decide whether my appeal is successful and I also have to provide a SAE otherwise they wont respond at all. Sounds bit suspect...

Apparetly they also have a photo of my car parked in allegded violation. I was going to write to them and appeal but it sounds as though I'm not obliged to?

I had one in a privately managed pay and display. As there was a scale of charges and I overstayed I sent them the amount for which I overstayed (GBP2.50) which is all they're entitled to. They hassled me for months but I ignored every single letter. They've now stopped.

In this case it's not clear what their losses are except they're no where near GBP150. Bin it and all the bulls**t letters they'll subsequently send about how your world will turn upside down if you don't pay.